Conventional toilet bowl brushes typically consist of a handle attached to a plurality of bristles. The bristles are typically made from a synthetic material that is capable of scrubbing the toilet bowl without scratching the bowl. Conventional toilet bowl brushes are designed to be used repeatedly over an extended length of time.
After repeated uses, however, toilet bowl brushes tend to discolor and tend to collect debris and other waste materials from the toilet bowl environment. In addition, toilet bowl brushes are typically placed back into a receptacle after use while still wet with toilet bowl water. This water can drip off the brush and soil the receptacle. As a result, toilet bowl brushes and their receptacles can develop an unpleasant appearance and even an unpleasant odor after multiple uses.
In view of the above, those skilled in the art have developed various toilet bowl brush handles that are to be used with disposable and replaceable brush heads. In these embodiments, only the brush handle is to be used repeatedly. The brush head, on the other hand, is to be disposed of after only one use. Such devices are disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,059,008, in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2005/0108843 and in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2006/0225237, which are all incorporated herein by reference.
The above identified publications disclose various handle configurations and various disposable brush head configurations. A need, however, still remains for a handle capable of engaging a disposable cleaning head that is not only relatively simple to manufacture and easy to use, but also exhibits sufficient clamping force to hold a disposable brush head.